Windows Text to Speech in WSH JavaScript

Originally published on: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:47:15 +0000

I have recently begun to explore the Windows Speech API (SAPI) available on Windows XP and Vista. My earliest experiment involves a very simple WSH script that instantiates a SpVoice object, invokes the Speak() method, and then waits for the speech synthesis to finish by using WaitUntilDone()

I coupled the invocations of the two above SAPI SpVoice methods in a JavaScript function named speak().

speech.js

// Simple speech API call
//
// License: MIT / X11
// Copyright (c) 2009 by James K. Lawless
// jimbo@radiks.net http://www.radiks.net/~jimbo
// http://www.mailsend-online.com
//
// Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
// obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation
// files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without
// restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,
// copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
// copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
// Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following
// conditions:
//
// The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
// included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
//
// THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
// EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
// OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
// NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
// HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
// WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
// FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
// OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

   var voice=new ActiveXObject("SAPI.SpVoice");

   function speak(s) {
      voice.Speak(s,1);
      voice.WaitUntilDone(-1);
   }

   speak("I like peanut butter.");

To execute the above, type:

cscript speech.js

The next script I wrote uses the SAPI to synthesize speech for all arguments found on the command-line:

talker.js

// Speak the text supplied on the command line.
// cscript talker.js "phrase 1" "phrase 2" ... etc.
//
// License: MIT / X11
// Copyright (c) 2009 by James K. Lawless
// jimbo@radiks.net http://www.radiks.net/~jimbo
// http://www.mailsend-online.com
//
// Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
// obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation
// files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without
// restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,
// copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
// copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
// Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following
// conditions:
//
// The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
// included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
//
// THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
// EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
// OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
// NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
// HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
// WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
// FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
// OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

   var voice=new ActiveXObject("SAPI.SpVoice");
   var args=WScript.Arguments;
   var i;

   function speak(s) {
      voice.Speak(s,1);
      voice.WaitUntilDone(-1);
   }

   for(i=0;i<args.Count();i++) {
      speak(args(i));
   }

The examples below illustrate how to use this script either from the command-line or from batch files:

cscript talker.js "Tippecanoe and tyler too."
cscript talker.js "This" "is a" "test"

The Speech Control Panel applet provides a simple GUI interface to the SAPI speech synthesis system. The script below emulates that function of the applet. Since the WSH JavaScript API does not provide a GUI input dialog, a mixed-language WSF file is used. The VBScript portion of the script wraps the InputBox function with a function called prompt(). The prompt function then becomes available to the JavaScript portion of the code.

speechui.wsf

<job id="Text2SpeechUI">

   <script language="VBScript">
      Function prompt(s)
        prompt = InputBox(s)
      End Function
   </script>
   <script language="JavaScript">
      var voice=new ActiveXObject("SAPI.SpVoice");
      var txt;

      function speak(s) {
         voice.Speak(s,1);
         voice.WaitUntilDone(-1);
      }

      for(;;) {
         txt=prompt("Enter a line of text. Click 'Cancel' to exit.");
         if(typeof(txt)=="undefined")
            break;
         if(txt!="")
            speak(txt);

      }
   </script>
</job>

You can invoke the above by issuing the following command-line:

wscript speechui.wsf

Enter text in the input area and click OK.